The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; French: Union européenne de radio-télévision (UER)) is an alliance of public service media entities, established on the 12 February 1950. As of 2014, the organisation comprises 72 Active Members in 56 countries,[2] and 37 Associate Members from a further 22 countries.[3] Most EU states are part of this organisation and therefore EBU has been subject to supranational legislation and regulation.[4] It also hosted debates between candidates for the European Commissionpresidency for the 2014 parliamentary elections but is unrelated to the institution itself.[5] It is best known for producing the Eurovision Song Contest.

The classic opening ident that preceded all Eurovision network transmissions until the mid-1990s. The logotypes of both the sending and receiving company were shown in the middle. The pattern around the middle is based on the Flag of Europe. This sample shows the old logo of the BBC.

Members of the EBU are radio and television companies, most of which are government-owned public service broadcasters or privately owned stations with public service missions. Active Members come from as far north as Iceland and as far south as Egypt, from Ireland in the west and Azerbaijan in the east, and almost every nation from geographical Europe in between. Associate Members are from countries and territories beyond Europe, such as Canada, Japan, Mexico, India and Hong Kong. Associate Members from the United States include ABC, CBS, NBC, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Time Warner, and the only individual station, Chicago-based classical music station WFMT.

Active Members are those paying EBU members meeting all technical criteria for full membership, whose states are either within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or members of the Council of Europe.[6] Syria is an example of a country within the EBA not complying with all technical criteria for full membership, and thus it is currently only granted Associated Membership.

Radio collaborations include Euroclassic Notturno – an overnight classical music stream, produced by BBC Radio 3 and broadcast in the United Kingdom as Through the Night – and special theme days, such as the annual Christmas music relays from around Europe.[7]

Most EBU broadcasters have a group deal to carry the Olympics[8] and FIFA World Cup (particularly, the games of their country and the Final). Another annually recurring event which is broadcast across Europe through the EBU is the Vienna New Year's Concert.

The objective of the EBU's technical activities is simply to assist EBU Members (see below) in this period of unprecedented technological changes. This includes provision of technical information to Members via conferences and workshops, as well as in written form (such as the EBU Technical Review, and the EBU tech-i magazine).

The EBU also encourages active collaboration between its Members on the basis that they can freely share their knowledge and experience, thus achieving considerably more than individual Members could achieve by themselves. Much of this collaboration is achieved through Project Groups which study specific technical issues of common interest: for example, EBU Members have long been preparing for the revision of the 1961 Stockholm Plan.

The EBU places great emphasis on the use of open standards. Widespread use of open standards (such as MPEG-2, DAB, DVB, etc.) ensures interoperability between products from different vendors, as well as facilitating the exchange of programme material between EBU Members and promoting "horizontal markets" for the benefit of all consumers.

EBU Members and the EBU Technical Department have long played an important role in the development of many systems used in radio and television broadcasting, such as:

Development of other content distribution networks on the internet through P2PTV; EBU Project Group D/P2P, from November 2007 to April 2008, with a trial of selected member channels, thanks to Octoshape's distribution platform.[9] The EBU is also part of the European P2P-Next project.

The Greek government shut down the state broadcaster ERT on 11 June, at short notice, citing government spending concerns related to the Euro crisis.[10] In response, the European Broadcasting Union set up a makeshift studio on the same day, near the former ERT offices in Athens, in order to continue providing EBU members with news-gathering and broadcast relay services that had formerly been provided by ERT.[11]

The EBU put out a statement expressing its "profound dismay" at the shutdown, urged the Greek Prime Minister "to use all his powers to immediately reverse this decision" and offered the "advice, assistance and expertise necessary for ERT to be preserved".[12] As of 4 May 2014, the New Hellenic Radio, Internet and Television (NERIT) broadcaster started nation wide transmissions, and overtook ERT's vacant Active Membership slot in EBU.

State Television Company awaits of satisfaction of request for Pending or Approved EBU membership since 2008.[16][17][18] Kazakhstan is outside of the European Broadcasting area, and thus cannot be granted Active Membership.[15]

Liechtenstein's only television broadcaster which began broadcasting on 15 August 2008. In July 2009, Peter Kölbel, broadcaster's managing director officially announced its intent to apply to join the EBU by the end of July 2009.[22]

The broadcasting corporation is a former Associate Member, and was alleged to have held negotiations with the EBU to become Active Members.[24] However, Palestine is not a member of the required organisations, and thus does not comply with the criteria.[15]

Recently shown interest at Eurovision 2009, by sending delegates in the hope of applying for active membership.[25] However their application has been denied under the current rules, due to the Gulf State being completely outside of the European Broadcasting Area.[15]

Any group or organisation member of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which provide a radio and/or television service outside of the European Broadcasting Area, are permitted to submit applications to the EBU for Associate Membership. Countries which have this status also pay an annual fee to maintain this status, if a fee is not paid, then their Associate Membership is revoked. It was also noted by the EBU that any country that is granted Associate Member status does not include any access into the Eurovision system.[26]

The list of Associate Members of EBU, comprised the following 37 broadcasting companies from 22 countries as of January 2014.[3]

Any groups or organisations from a country with International Telecommunication Union (ITU) membership, which do not qualify for either the EBU's Active or Associate memberships, but still provide a broadcasting activity for the EBU, are granted a unique Approved Participants membership, which lasts approximately five years. An application for this status may be submitted to the EBU at any given time, providing an annual fee is paid.[27]

The following seven EBU broadcast members had status as Approved Participants in December 2014.[28]

The Eurovision Song Contest (French: Concours Eurovision de la Chanson)[29] is an annual international song competition, that was first held in Lugano, Switzerland, on 24 May 1956. Seven countries participated – each submitting two songs, for a total of 14. This was the only contest in which more than one song per country was performed: since 1957 all contests have allowed one entry per country. The 1956 contest was won by the host nation, Switzerland.[30] In this competition, only countries that are members of the EBU can participate. The first winner was Switzerland, and the most recent is Austria.

Junior Eurovision Song Contest (French: Concours Eurovision de la Chanson Junior),[31] is an annual international song competition, that was first held in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 15 November 2003. Sixteen countries participated – each submitting one song, for a total of 16 entries. The 2003 Contest was won by Croatia and the current winner is Italy.

Eurovision Young Musicians is a competition for European musicians that are younger than 19 years old. It is organised by the EBU and is a member of EMCY.

The televised competition is held every two years, with some countries holding national heats. Since its foundation in 1982, the Eurovision Young Musicians competition has become one of the most important music competitions on an international level.

The Eurovision Dance Contest (not to be confused with the Eurovision Young Dancers Competition) was an international dancing competition that was held for the first time in London, United Kingdom on 1 September 2007. The competition was repeated in 2008, but has not been held since.

It uses a format similar to the Eurovision Song Contest, every country that is a member of the EBU has had the opportunity to send a dance act to compete for the title of "Eurovision Young Dancer". The act can be either a solo act or a dance couple, and all contestants must be between the ages of 16 and 21 years and not professionally engaged. The winner is chosen by television viewers across the EBU through a real-time, electronic and onscreen voting mechanism.

Let the Peoples Sing is a biennial choir competition, the participants of which are chosen from radio recordings entered by EBU radio members. The final, encompassing three categories and around ten choirs, is offered as a live broadcast to all EBU members. The overall winner is awarded the Silver Rose Bowl.

Jeux Sans Frontières (English: Games Without Frontiers, or Games Without Borders) was a Europe-wide television game show. In its original conception, it was broadcast from 1965 to 1999 under the auspices of the EBU. The original series run ended in 1982 but was revived in 1988 with a different complexion of nations and was hosted by smaller broadcasters.